Sure, Americans are loud-mouthed, outspoken, don't really care about what they say to people, somewhat ignorant....
Okay, getting off-topic here.
The point is Americans in general are polite people on the outside.
The greet you during your morning walks, they hold open doors for you (both guys and girls okay!) and they say thank you! (Which I find is a MIRACLE if a Malaysian salesperson says that to you.)
So the short time I was there, I kind of incorporated a little bit of the American culture into my mannerisms. Not the loud-mouthed culture, I mean the hold-open-the-door culture.
When in Rome do as the Romans do right?
Anyways after coming home for the winter break, I had a hankering to eat bread for some reason. So my mom and I drove to RT Pastry, a pretty decent bakery near Taylor's University College.
My mom had no place to park the car so she waited for me outside while I went in to buy some bread.
I went to get a pair of tongs and a tray to hold all my chosen pieces of bread (like duh!).
I got to the stack of trays almost at the same time as this middle-aged aunty. I think I probably reached it like a second before she did.
So being somewhat Americanized and all, I politely handed her a tray.
BLARDY HELL SHE TOTALLY IGNORED ME AND REACHED FOR ANOTHER ONE!
I was like WTF?!?!?!?! HELLO??? I am nicely handing you a tray here and you're totally ignoring me as though I'm yesterday's shit you flushed down the toilet.
Seriously though, I was that pissed.
When I told my best friend later, she said to me, "Michelle, you have forgotten how Malaysians are. When you handed her that tray, it means that there is something wrong with that tray (ie. it's dirty or something) and you don't want it so you give it to her."
It made total sense.
What I am saying here is as much as I have complained about the US in my previous posts, that particular incident made me realize how rude Malaysians are.
In fact, according to Reader's Digest, Kuala Lumpur is ranked as the third rudest city in the world.
New York, USA is ranked as the most courteous city.
Before giving me BS that the surveyors are foreigners and all and don't understand Asians (note that many of the countries under Least Courteous are Asian), let me give you a little breakdown of how they conducted their tests.
(As quoted from RD )
test1:
—–
We walked into public buildings 20 times behind people to see if they would hold the door open for us.
test 2:
—–
We bought small items from 20 shops and recorded whether the sales assistants said “Thank You”
test 3:
—–
“We dropped a folder full of papers in 20 busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up. ”
As you can see from the test, language shouldn’t have been a problem.
The surveyors were all from their own countries (35 different countries to be exact) all conducting the same survey. Half were men, half women.
(End quote)
As you now know, the surveyors were local people. Bet it put things into perspective for Malaysians.
What I am trying to say is, COME ON PEOPLE! BEING COURTEOUS WON'T KILL YOU!
Don't give me that crap that it's not in the Asian culture. So many people have said to me, "Asians might be cold and unfriendly on the outside but at least we are more genuine and honest on the inside."
I do agree that Westerners are generally pretty fake and put on a warm exterior, so you might say their politeness and courtesy are just acts. They might be and they might not. But that doesn't matter.
THIS IS COMMON COURTESY I AM TALKING ABOUT.
It doesn't matter if you're an Asian or a Westerner, it's common courtesy to at least say "Thank You!" or hold the door open for someone. Or even smile at someone.
Crap I got a little carried away. I originally intended to just blog about my annoyance with the ah soh at the bakery.
So my fellow Malaysians, let's prove Reader's Digest wrong! I know most of us are genuinely friendly, courteous people so let's show it out! Don't hide it.
There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with saying "Good Morning!" to the people you meet on your morning walks. You don't lose anything and you make yourself and the other person feel better.
MALAYSIA BOLEH! (though with the current circumstances I am highly doubting it.)
Sources and pics courtesy of:
http://www.gobalakrishnan.com/malaysians-are-rude/
http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/good-manners/article27599-1.html
